


throw me that smile

by alaynes



Category: All For the Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Fluff, Food Fight, Gen, Literally nothing, Post-Canon, Read it anyway, there is Nothing in this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 12:35:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6006292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alaynes/pseuds/alaynes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A large glob of spaghetti flew across the air. Allison ducked, Nicky dodged. Neil, who was still frozen to the spot, stared as the pasta flew across the air, having missed its original target, and landed on Andrew's head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	throw me that smile

**Author's Note:**

> "There was a food fight and i just threw spaghetti at the scariest kid in school AU"

When Neil entered the athletes cafeteria on campus with the Foxes (and Katelyn, who had become a near-fixture at Aaron's side since Andrew had backed down), it was nearly full. The football team, large and rowdy enough to take up three tables on their own, were seated near the food, with half the Vixens somewhere around them. The last football match of the season had been yesterday, he realized, and he had heard the noise of the football team mourning their loss with loud music and lots of alcohol. They didn't look hungover, though, as though the last of the exams had shaken the headaches away. Too late, Neil realized that this was not the best time to have a Foxes end-of-exams celebration lunch in the cafeteria, as it was too loud for any proper conversation.

Neil didn't voice this thought, though, and followed the team when Dan soldiered ahead without giving a second glance to the football team. Once they all had food in their trays, they took it to two large tables pushed together, not too far from the football team, but far enough.

Katelyn waved to some of the Vixens on the other table, but kept up her conversation with Allison, and sat with them. They sat in their usual order, with Dan and Matt next to each other on end of the first table, Allison next to Dan, Katelyn across from Allison and next to Aaron. Nicky sat next to Allison on the next table, with Kevin on his other side. Neil was across from Nicky and next to Andrew, because no one opted to sit next to Andrew with (another) knife in hand—when the option was available.

Conversation was broken up. Neil's last exam had been hours ago, and after having spent the time between then and now in his room watching Exy videos with Kevin, whose obsession could not be dented by something as ultimately unimportant as college examinations, he was well away from the mental state of academia. Nicky's and Matt's last exams, though, had been just half an hour past, and they seemed to be stll thinking about them. Matt was picking moodily at his food, and barely contributing to conversation. Nicky had bounced back enough to be chattering away about something Erik-related, but Neil was only half paying attention.

He was thinking of Andrew. It had been interesting watching Andrew not really study even as the rest of them, even Aaron and Allison, who seemed not to care, pore over books until they fell asleep on them--not that Neil had seen either of them do that. Andrew, with his eidetic memory, didn't need to. He had maintained his bored expression while Nicky panicked about Distribution Channels, up to five minutes before he left to give his last one, and had had it when he returned.

Another time, Andrew would have made for a good study partner. He was quiet while studying the same as he was (mostly) quiet at all other times, which allowed Neil to focus better on his own studies, even if the quiet did sometimes threaten to put him to sleep. Now, he was thoroughly distracted, and rarely objected to kissing Neil when he was supposed to be studying. Despite the distraction, though, Neil's exams had gone moderately well, and he wasn't worried about failing any of them.

"So I said—what are they doing there?" Nicky turned to look over his shoulder at where the football team seemed to have started some kind of fight. They were getting louder, and some of them had stood up and were gesturing angrily at each other. Neil couldn't help but watch warily as whatever they were saying got nastier, if the others' beginning to stand up was any indication. They had just lost a match yesterday, and tempers were likely high and beginning to fray. It was unlikely that they would bring the fight here, but it wasn't impossible.

Allison seemed to have noticed his staring, or maybe their noise. "What's going on over there?" Her voice was definitely loud enough to carry, and some of them turned to look at her.

"Do you have a problem?" one of them, a large man Neil had seen in the building, but couldn't put a name to, called out to Allison.

"Yeah, we're trying to talk here!" she shouted back. The man looked shocked, but also angry. Neil was beginning to consider how the Foxes small but possibly more dangerous team would fare against the many large football players. Fighting on court was different from an actual fight, and on his own none of them would stand very long against the football team, but Neil had never been in a fight with a group of people at his back. He wondered if any of them would be dumb enough to hit Andrew or Renee.

A large but usually friendly senior, Browning, pushed away from his chair and took two large strides towards their table, placing them just under two feet away from them. Neil's hand tightened around the fork and knife set in his hands. When he didn't come further but lifted his hand as if to throw something, Neil thought _knife_.

A large glob of spaghetti flew across the air. Allison ducked, Nicky dodged. Neil, who was still frozen to the spot, stared as the pasta flew across the air, having missed its original target, and landed on Andrew's head.

For a long, long second, everyone stared. All the Foxes had seen Andrew in a fight—self-induced or otherwise, and over the last year there had been plenty. No one seemed to know what to do with an Andrew with sauce and spaghetti spattered on his face and hair, not even Browning, whose eyes had widened when he realized who he had hit. Andrew may not be as well-known outside the world of Exy, but the Palmetto State athletic teams had, at the very least, heard of the notoriety surrounding him. Kevin was staring with something like disgust. Allison had gotten back up and was brushing herself down, though none of the food had made it to her outfit. Nicky seemed to be torn up somewhere between horror and amusement.

Andrew, predictably, looked bored.

Dan was the first to react. She opened her mouth to yell something back to the now frightened-looking Browning, but Nicky got it out first. The pie in his hand flew far enough to hit another football player, whose response came somewhat faster. This time, spaghetti flew toward Nicky, but hit Neil instead. Neil didn't know how to respond. He had _heard_ of food fights, yes, but he didn't think they actually happened. He definitely hadn't thought college-age adults participated in them.

He had been wrong, it seemed. Even Dan, who he had not expected to retaliate like this, lifted a chunk of her own pasta to return it at the football player, but it was slippery, and half of it landed on the back of Matt's head.

Then a lot of things happened very fast. Pasta and pie flew between the two tables, which were starting to merge into one as both the Foxes and the football players came closer to each other for better aim. The floor was a mess of sauce and chunks of carrot and peas. Everyone had food on them, except possibly Allison, who was surprisingly capable of ducking around food while managing to sling it at as many people as possible. Dan had bits of meatball in her hair, and Renee's hair was twice as colourful as usual. Kevin looked as surprised as Neil, as he had probably not seen something like this before either, and as a result of standing still had sauce and mash splattered all over his face and shoulders.

The fight began to slow as a football player Neil didn't recognize slipped on the mess of sauce on the middle ground below the two tables, and fell to the ground with a disgusting smacking sound, and burst out laughing. After a second or two, others began to drop around him, all of them equally amused. Neil watched as people sunk onto their knees right where they stood, regardless of what food there was below, as though the fight had completely exhausted them--no one was capable of anything but laughing.

After a second of watching with his customary expression on his face, Andrew turned and walked away. Kevin followed, and then Neil. Aaron, who had been caught full in the face by half a pie by Katelyn, stayed behind. Nicky followed, even though he had participated with lots of enthusiasm, taking more hits than he landed. His shoe made ugly squishing noises as he walked on the clean linoleum away from the fight scene, and Neil checked the urge to watch his footsteps marring it. Behind, he could still hear Dan and Renee laughing about something.

Instead, he fought a smile.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know? A friend prompted me and I came up with this. I just needed cute happy things with my Foxes.


End file.
